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The 2009 Fancy Food Show, Part 2

One month ago, I promised [1] to share more of my favorites from the Fancy Food Show [2]. I don’t have an excuse for the delay, unless you count the many distractions I’ve had: a box of Parisian chocolate and three Amano bars [3] (more on that later). Here are the last items that caught my eye.

Best Brownies

peanut butter brownies [4]

New York City’s Peanut Butter and Co. [5] is best known for its natural peanut butters. Here they branch out with a boxed mix. I normally bake from scratch, but these are just as good, and you can’t beat the rich peanut butter taste. Recommended for all baking phobes.

Best Confections

Amella caramels [6]Photo: Amella

Amella cocoa butter caramels [7] have unique flavors (carrot cake, black forest and passion fruit), and the packaging is beautiful. The true test, though, is the flavor: the black forest tastes like fresh cherries, and the texture is smooth and lingering.

Best Energy Bars


Element Bars - energy bars

Element Bars [8] lets you customize your energy bars with a variety of fruits, nuts and grains, and it doesn’t taste like medicine. I suspect it’s because the default mix contains whole soybeans rather than soy protein isolate. Nutritionally, it’s like comparing white sugar to a piece of fruit. Soy protein isolate is processed at high temperatures (which renders most of the protein ineffective) in an alkaline solution, then an acid wash, and lastly neutralized in an alkaline solution. Appetizing, huh?

Best Coffee Cake

Jennifer’s Kitchen [9], a startup from Indiana, makes super moist coffee cakes, but the best part is all the crunchy streusel. 10% of each purchase goes toward a non-profit organization. Sorry, no pictures, although their site has lovely ones [10].

Related links:
Dispatches from the previous years’ Fancy Food Shows [11]
Make your own energy bars: Chocolate-date “Larabars” [12]